FAIRFAX, Va. – The Shenandoah University men's basketball team opened up its 2014-15 season Saturday afternoon with a 91-51 exhibition loss to Division I George Mason.
The Patriots scored 11 of the game's initial 13 points and never looked back against SU in the fourth lifetime meeting between the two schools.
George Mason, a member of the Atlantic 10, now holds a 3-1 advantage in the all-time series. Saturday's exhibition contest was the first meeting between the two programs since a 118-78 GMU win early in the 1992-93 season.
Trailing 11-3 at the first media timeout, the Hornets got a Jared Carithers 3-pointer coming out the break to cut the deficit to five, 11-6, but could not get any closer.
Mason scored nine of the game's next 12 points and eventually extended its lead to 12 points by the second media timeout.
Shenandoah kept itself within striking distance for most of the first half until GMU reeled off a 9-2 run between the 8:15 and 5:53 marks that put the hosts up 36-20.
The bulge eventually reached 20 points before junior Jimi Starks canned a jumper at the buzzer to send the Hornets into the halftime break down 51-33.
The initial five minutes of the second stanza brought more of the same until Mason finally put SU away for good with a 20-3 run over a span of 7:26 midway through the half.
The Patriots used this spurt to take a 78-46 lead by the third media timeout (7:41) of the second half.
Carithers led the Hornets with 17 points with Starks and sophomore Walt Moody both adding seven.
The Hornets shot 31 percent from the field and were outrebounded 49-28.
Mason shot 55.4 from the field and had a 31-10 rebounding edge on the SU offensive end.
Shenandoah officially opens up its 2014-15 season Saturday night versus Cazenovia (N.Y.) in the opening round of the BB&T Tip-Off Tournament.
Notes: Saturday's exhibition was played with the experimental, 30-second shot clock… This is the fourth straight season that SU has opened the year with an exhibition against a higher division opponent. Shenandoah has previously played Radford and Campbell from Division I and West Virginia Wesleyan from Division II…
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